It seems Shigofumi is going to use mini-arcs. Two episodes per case. I’m really glad about that, as even two episodes can contain a whole lot more character development then just one (ahem, Jigoku Shoujo). I really want to know a bit more about Fumika and Kanaka. Why the heck are are they randomly delivering letters from dead people? Fumika doesn’t even seem to care about the contents of the letters themselves, just delivering them.

I must say, the arc’s storyline is awfully cliche. Asuna’s father is an evil scheming man who deserved to die, and Asuna is only crazy because of past experiences. Yes, Asuna is a good girl, nevermind that she killed poor Shouta for unknown reasons. But all this was presented in such a manner, that it made me almost cry and feel sorry for Asuna. Shigofumi excels at presentation.

I wish we knew more about Asuna’s father. I demand another episode on why Asuna’s father’s does what he does. I want to know why he would sell his daughters for lolicon just to create money. Teenager pornagraphy is pretty terrible, but child pornagraphy is even worse. In fact, I even want to know why he’s in a hospital.

I think, starting today, I’m going to take less screen shots and write more text. Is that a good idea, I wonder?

This episode of Persona introduces us to Shin’s high school and classmates, which the series can definitely do without. Megumi is one of the few tsuntsun I find extremely annoying, and Mr. Afro ends up scaring me. Morimoto is alright, through. You may know that she is voiced by Mai Nakahara. I love every character in the world who happens to be voiced by Mai.

I’m not really watching this anime for Shin and his mundane school life, but for Ryo and the “Apathy Syndrome”(?) case. That part of the series is so gratifying for me that it kind of redeems Shin’s boring school life. Unfortunately, this episode doesn’t have too much of that, except two small scenes. One about how everyone hates him, and another about how he hates everyone. Boring, eh?

Currently, my favorite character is the lolita girl on the bridge (pictured above). She looks a lot like an Aristocrat, which is a nice difference from the goth-lolis that are in every other anime containing a lolita. She seems to be the girl pictured in the first scene of the first episode. Her hair color is also coincidently very similar to Megumi’s. I really hope that that is just the character designer being lazy. If Megumi and the lolita are the same person, I’ll… (*Takes out Death Note*)

Megumi randomly falling asleep at the end of the episode is the most terrible and irrational plot device I’ve ever come across, during my millions of years as an otaku. The ending wasn’t all that suspenseful, either. It’s very obvious what’s going to happen.

The music annoys me greatly. Where were the cool themes from the last episode? The animation isn’t as good as the opening episode, as well. Jun’s strange facial alignments scare me. But I am enjoying the fact that they’re using watercolor-style CG backgrounds less and less.

This should be a yuri between Hiromi and Noe, instead of a harem, because it works so perfectly as one. No one cares about Shin-chan, but we all love Noe and Hiromi. So, why don’t we just strip Shin’chiro from his role of a protagonist, and make Hiromi and Noe the stars? The ratings will skyrocket, LITERALLY!

Then, they could work on getting Shin’chiro and Nobuse into a yaoi, and draw in the fangirls. Come on, True Tears could be the next big hit! It could join the FYGs and the animebloggers together, into an everlasting friendship and alliance. No fangirl will ever be insulted at the bloggers again!

But if it was just mindless yaoi and yuri, it’d be porn. No one likes porn.

I’m also endlessly amused that some random person called Shin-chan a pimp. When’s the last time a male harem lead was known as a pimp (School Days is not a harem, so that doesn’t count)?

Ayase is a textbook example of a yandere. Too bad I don’t enjoy textbook examples of yandere. Yangire are just so much better.

If the people in the preview are her and her sister, the next episode seems to be setting the stage for Ayase to kill her little sister. And if she kills that loli, oh, I’ll make sure she dies! (*Takes out Death Note*)

But really, what does she has to gain from killing her father?

Shigofumi also needs to be a little more dark. There was a whole block in the middle that seemed to be part of your average shoujo-love story. And the “YOU GOT MAIL!” gag made me stare blankly at the screen for quite a long time.

But, this may have been just to build up the assumption that Ayase was a normal, nice, little girl. Which, of course, she isn’t. GO YANDERE POWER!

I really hope Shigofumi doesn’t end up with Hell Girl’s “Letter of the Episode” formula (hohoho). Even working in small arcs can develop the characters enough so that we can relate to them. Shigofumi seems like such an interesting anime, I’d hate for it to go the same way as Jigoku Shoujo.